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Given the state of our starting pitching combined with the fact that we are only 1 game out of first, I think a trade for Garza would improve our chances to compete this season. Britton is not ready to help the big club, Arrieta has been bad of late. Hunter and Matusz have been inconsistant and Hammel has a knee issue that could flare up at any time. Having said that, there has been talk around baseball that the Cubs are going to be cleaning house. I could also see Alfonso Soriano on the block.....Aquiring Soriano would help provide protection for Jones and elevate our lineup to close the gap on the Yanks and Sawks. In my opinion there are only a few guys in our system that are not tradeable, Machado and Bundy. I think that Garza could be aquired without giving up the farm. I also think that Soriano could be aquired as well.No one expected this years Orioles team to be in the hunt, so why not make a run at the division or the wild card. I think making a move would show everyone around the league we are for real.

If, and IF the Orioles are still in the hunt come trade deadline, then I would be ok with a trade involving pretty much anyone except the top two.

However, he is a free agent I think. (correct me if wrong).So that means they need an extension intact. Which I doubt he would do with the Orioles (really an assumption there but I think that's not too farfetched considering he is next in line after Hamels next off-season)

When's the last time the Rays have traded prospects for a major league player? They're the ones who traded away Garza and they were in contention that year. I know they had plenty of pitching depth, but no move they make comes at a price to the future of the team. The Orioles, for now, should operate like the Rays. However, the Orioles have a huge advantage. Once the O's have put together a competitive team, they have the money to go out and add a superstar as the final piece. Tampa had a huge hole at first base this offseason and two of the biggest 1B superstars were available. If the Orioles had the team Tampa had at that point, they have the money to get one of those guys.

Baltimore should not be trading prospects for guys like Garza. They should be trading guys like Hammel who at this point could probably bring back at least a top 100 prospect and one or two others.

Trading for Garza would make a lot of sense if you can acquire him without parting with Bundy and Machado while also immediately signing him to a long-term extension.

However, the Cubs would obviously want at least one elite prospect in the deal, and the Orioles obviously shouldn't part with any of their elite prospects, so there's obviously no way this deal can or should happen.

CSPitt17130 wrote:When's the last time the Rays have traded prospects for a major league player? They're the ones who traded away Garza and they were in contention that year. I know they had plenty of pitching depth, but no move they make comes at a price to the future of the team. The Orioles, for now, should operate like the Rays. However, the Orioles have a huge advantage. Once the O's have put together a competitive team, they have the money to go out and add a superstar as the final piece. Tampa had a huge hole at first base this offseason and two of the biggest 1B superstars were available. If the Orioles had the team Tampa had at that point, they have the money to get one of those guys.

Baltimore should not be trading prospects for guys like Garza. They should be trading guys like Hammel who at this point could probably bring back at least a top 100 prospect and one or two others.

Agreed. Although I am NEVER supportive of giving out mega contracts, no matter how good the team is. The Pujols and Fielder contracts will almost surely drag their respective franchises down at some point in the future. I think the reason the O's have the advantage over the Rays is their ability to resign their OWN star players. The perfect example would be Adam Jones. The O's gave him a big extension that would have been much more expensive had he been a free agent and not had one arbitration year remaining. The best part is the O's didn't lock him up into his regression years, they signed one of their best players through his prime which is something the Rays aren't really able to do (I think they were very fortunate with the Longoria deal). I'm even against the Ryan Zimmerman contract extension, he's a great player but he will not live up to the total value of the contract by any means.

I hope the O's are able to sign Wieters to a similar extension to Jones and follow that same blueprint in the future. SIgning free agents is a good thing when your in contention but I am against mega contracts because the player will almost never live up to the value of the contract.

OriolesRedskins28 wrote:I think the reason the O's have the advantage over the Rays is their ability to resign their OWN star players. The perfect example would be Adam Jones.

I disagree. The Rays are better at signing their own players. They have Longoria and Moore and Price locked up to WAY, WAY better contracts than the one that Jones got. Jones essentially signed a deal close to what he would get in free agency. Longoria was extended for $44 million for 9 seasons, the bulk of which is in the 3 final years as club options. Moore's is similar; 8 years for $37 million with the three final years holding most of the money as club options. This is how Wieters should have been extended a year or two ago. Even the McCutchen extension with the Pirates (6 years for $51 million) came this year and it makes the Jones extension look stupid.

How the Rays operate and how they've become successful isn't a secret to other teams, so there's no reason for other teams to do stupid things (like extend Ethier for a worse contract than Jones got), but they do it anyway. So far, Duquette has been somewhere in between Andrew Friedman with the Rays and Ned Coletti with the Dodgers. We'll see what he does at the deadline with a team that most intelligent people believe is overachieving. If he trades Schoop, Bridwell, Lino, etc., to bolster this season's team for a run at the playoffs, he'll have shifted himself way towards Coletti, in my opinion.

I like making a move for Garza simply because you can never have enough front line pitching. If it cost us a mid level prospect I'd be ok with that. Like I said I would entertain any deal that doesn't include Bundy, Machado. The thing with prospects is they don't always pan out, and you know what you have with Garza. I also agree with your point on Wieters. That extension should have been done long ago. It will cost the team more the longer they wait. I love what Tampa and the Nats have been able to do, as a fan I see this eason as an opportunity that we should not let pass by with out making every effort to see how far we can go.

I think you're underestimating what it would take to get Garza. The cubs gave up Archer, Lee, Guyer, Chirinos, and Fuld. That's a major league player and 4 of their top 11 prospects. Archer and Lee were ranked 2 and 3 in the Rays deep list of prospects going into this year. There's no way the Orioles should give up all of that when their chances of making the playoffs with Garza are probably about the same as finishing below .500.